(The Center Square) – Gov. Kevin Stitt said he expects legal challenges to a law that makes performing a majority of abortions a felony in Oklahoma.
Senate Bill 612, which Stitt signed Tuesday, allows abortions if the mother's life is in danger during a medical emergency. All other abortions could result in a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $100,000. The bill will not make the woman criminally liable.
"We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma," Stitt said. "Attorney General John O'Connor and I know this bill will be challenged immediately by liberal activists from the coast who always seem to want to come in and dictate a mandate and challenge our way of life here in the state of Oklahoma."
Some organizations immediately criticized the law. The American Civil Liberties Union said "the fight is not over" in a Twitter post shortly after Stitt signed the bill.
"This ban will harms all of us, but the impacts will fall hardest on people of color, survivors of sexual and domestic violence, immigrants, people with low incomes, young people and people living in rural areas, Tamya Cox-Toure, co-president of Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 38-9 and the House by a vote of 70-14, which is 80% of the Legislature, Stitt said.
The governor said he plans to sign every pro-life bill presented to him.
"These issues belong to the states and other states may do things differently," Stitt said. "But in Oklahoma I represent all four million Oklahomans. They overwhelmingly do not support abortions in the state of Oklahoma."
The law takes effect in August.
via Oklahoma's Center Square News
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